An important form of communication between businesses and customers has traditionally been “paper-based” communication, such as letters and bills mailed via a postal service. For example, it is estimated that 10 million subscribers of a Mobile Service Provider, such as, for example, Verizon Wireless™ network receive a paper bill and pay their monthly bill using checks. Merchants spend about $10 billion per year for printing and mailing of bills to customers. It is also estimated that banks account for about 6% of all first-class U.S. mail and that insurance companies and credit card companies account for about 4.5% and 4%, respectively.
However, significant interest has been expressed recently regarding alternative, non-paper methods of communication. The term “alternative messaging” refers to the distribution of information using alternative delivery media, including, but not limited to, facsimile transmissions (fax), electronic mail (e-mail), Internet, on-line banking, and the like. Alternative messaging may also be more cost effective than traditional paper-based communications, such as mail, not only because of the higher cost of paper, printing and postage, but also because of the speed of electronic communications.
Unfortunately, alternative messaging has to date been met with resistance from both businesses and consumers for various reasons. To illustrate, the customers of Mobile Service Providers such as, for example, Verizon Wireless™ use are provided with two paperless billing options. Either a customer can pay the bill through a web site of the company, or the customer can pay via the Internet banking program of their home banking web site. However, only 25% of the customer base in, for example, Verizon Wireless™ uses either of these two paperless, electronic-only, billing options. Therefore, a solution is needed to increase the percentage of paperless billing subscriptions.